The Human Child
by BookZombie
Summary: A wraith get separated from the rest of his unit during the culling of a snow covered planet, forced to walk back to the Stargate to get to a world where he can contact his hive for rescue the wraith finds a young human child and decides to help her.


(Disclaimer: This is a fanfiction, I do not own Stargate Atlantis. This story is just written for my own amusement and is not meant to challenge any copyright laws. My hat of to those who actually own Stargate Atlantis for the great setting they have created.)

The Human Child

He awoke covered in a cold white substance as white as the hair that grew on his head. The wraith was not sure how long he had been laying in the snow but from the position of the sun on the sky it could not have been more than an hour, in the distance the fires caused in the chaos of the culling still raged. The wraith rose to his feet and brushed snow off his long leather coat, he had to get out of here, sooner or later the surviving humans would come out of hiding, and while one of them, or two or three where no match for him the green skinned monster knew that he was not invincible and the people of this planet would be filled with anger since so many of their loved ones had been taken away to feed the hungry members of his hive.

The young wraith scientist begun to walk in the direction of the gate, his hive had a rendezvous planet set up in case one of them got separated, he could wait there for the rest to pick him up. The scientist had been knocked unconscious by an explosion as the desperate humans inhabiting this rock tried to defend themselves from their alien attackers, from the disturbing lack of other voices in his head it was clear to the scientist that his brothers had considered him lost and had already left, his only hope to rejoin the hive was to reach the rendezvous planet and pray that the queen even bothered to check it to see if her one lost subject had managed to survive after all.

The wraith did not know how long he had been walking when he heard the wet sound of a small person wabbeling through the snow after him, the white haired creature spun around and pointed his stunner in the direction of the sound and as he did so he came face to face with a small, human child, a female no more than seven years old at the most. The child where staring the monster in the eyes and the scientist noted the tears on her pink cheeks. The wraith's first instinct was to feed on the small human, after all it was not often a morsel like this just walked up to him, but the culling had been rich and the young scientist had taken his fill before the unfortunate explosion knocked him unconscious so it seamed sort of wasteful to kill this girl, after all the bottle neck of human reproduction lay, just as with his own kind with the females. This girl if she was allowed to live would grow up and produce offspring, new humans which in turn could be harvested to feed his hungry brethren.  
«Leave child, I have had my fill, go back to your parents!»  
The young wraith growled, his inhuman, multi toned voice sounding hollow and out of place out there on the snow covered plain.  
«Shoo, be gone with you.»  
The wraith waved a taloned hand dismissively at the child before he turned to continue his trek back towards the Stargate, he had not taken many steps however before the wabbeling sound behind him started again. The scientist turned on his heels so quickly that his white hair spun around him and hissed at the child following him.  
«I said go home!»  
The little girl took a few steps back and the scientist noted with some satisfaction that the child finally looked a bit scared of him.  
«But...but mister, my parents where taken into the blue light...I have no home anymore.»  
The child's voice shook as she glanced up at him, her eyes pleading.  
«I have no where to go mister, and I am cold, please help me.»  
The scientist sigh, he again seriously considered eating the little girl. Left alone this child had done the only thing she could do, seek out an adult to take care of her, even if that adult was one of the monsters which had taken her parents away.  
«I can not help you child, there must be some place where you people hide when the cullings begin, go there. I do not wish to harm you, but if you test my patience I will not hesitate to make a meal out of you.»  
The wraith was about to turn away again, thinking he had finally solved this problem and could go on his merry way when the little girl started bawling behind him, obviously the harshness of his tone had been to much on the scared little girl. The young scientist did not know why, but for some reason the sound of the crying child awoke emotions in him, emotions which seldom stirred and he decided to show compassion, just this once.  
«Fine, I can not take you to your people, I do not know where they are and they would kill me if I just showed up with you, but I will take you to the gate and send you to a planet with a village close to the gate, but then you are on your own from there.»  
The little girl stopped making that awful bawling sound and looked at the green monster through tear filled eyes.  
«Really?»  
The wraith sigh again.  
«Yes really, now come along, if you slow me down to much I will leave you behind.»

The pair of them, the monster and the girl walked for about an hour. The wraith several times asked himself why he was bringing this little human child with him, he settled on the explanation that she would breed more food once she became an adult, however the real reason was that somewhere inside the monster did not wish this fragile little creature to die, and it was very clear that if he did not take care of her that is what would happen, a human child of such a young age, if the cold did not get her then predators in the forest surrounding the snow covered path would. No he only really had two real options the wraith thinks, either helping the girl reach other humans who could take care of her or eat her, anything else would just be leaving her here to die anyway. As they walked the little human chatted, she behaved with the the carelessness of someone still to young to truly understand what had happened to her family, or perhaps she was just in shock and was blocking the knowledge from her mind, the wraith assumed a little of both. Suddenly the girl grabbed the wraith's long leather coat and gave it a pull, obviously she had noticed that her strange new guardian was not paying any attention to her prattle. The scientist looked down at the young human and doing the best to suppress the annoyance in his voice he growled.  
«Yes, what do you want.»  
The girl grinned up at him and still with a tight grip on his coat she said.  
«Moora, my name is Moora, I have said it three times already but you where not listening to me. My mother says that not listening to people when they talk is rude.»  
Well your mother is probably a dried up husk by now so her opinions do not really matter the wraith wanted to say, but instead he made his voice sound as patient as he could.  
«Moora, very well then I know what to call you, could you let go of my coat now so we can be on our way, it will be dark soon and I would like to have covered more ground before then.»  
The child nodded and let go of the black leather of the wraith's clothing and the two of them started walking again however not many seconds later the girl's hand was back, tugging at her new protector's coat.  
«Mister, what is your name, my mother says that you should always tell people your name when they have told you theirs.»  
The young wraith spun around again to face the child.  
«I do not have a name you could pronounce.»  
Moora looked puzzled for a moment then she asked.  
«Why?»  
Again the wraith found himself wishing to eat this little human girl, she was trying his patience to the extreme.  
«Why? Well because unless you have not noticed I am not human, I do not have a human name, now can we please get going, your idiotic village lies so far from the gate that without my dart there is at least a day and a half's walk to get there. Could you please stop asking me these pointless questions every other second and move your feet?»  
Moora looked at the green skinned monster for all of two seconds, then her lower lip sort of quivered and she started bawling again.  
«You are mean, you are the meanest man I have ever met. I want my mommmmmmmmmy!»  
The girl screamed, her voice so load that she was sure to alert every potentially dangerous animal and beast in the forest to their presence. The wraith looked at the young one with a certain desperation in his yellow eyes. This little morsel was so different from children of his own kind. Sure wraith children to would cry at times, but they where disciplined, they did not disturb the adults needlessly, this girl just said whatever popped up in her mind and correction which would have sent a young wraith bowing and apologizing for his insolence made this little one scream like a dying animal, oh well, there was little to do about this other than to try to calm the child down. The wraith bent down and swooped the child up into his arms, it would probably be quicker if he just carried her anyway, and he made his voice as soft as possible.  
«Shh little one, I am just anxious to be on my way. I can take the cold, but you, we need to get you to the gate as soon as possible or you will freeze to death out here. I do not have the time to answer all your questions. Now stop crying and I will carry you. I do not have a name you can use as our names are telepathic in nature, however tell you what, if you desire you can give me a name.»  
The little human stopped her crying to a sniveling sobbing, her eyes locked with that of the wraith.  
«You are not angry with me anymore mister?»  
The scientist shook his white maned head and muttered.  
«No little morsel, I am not angry with you.»  
It was like night and day, the girl sopped crying and beamed up at her monstrous protector from her place in his arms.  
«Really? And I can give you a name? Any name I choose.»  
The scientist nodded.  
«Any name, if you promise to be silent for a while.»  
The girl nodded and seamed to concentrate, her little brow creased in contemplation.  
«I will call you Raka, my favorite doll is named Raka it is a very pretty name, don't you think.»  
The wraith only nodded, he found it best not to mention that the name the girl gave him did not matter to him in the least, however if assigning him this word, this sound would keep the little human content and quiet then the monster could tolerate humiliation of being named after a doll.

Raka carried his living burden for several hours, the little one eventually fell asleep in his arms, the wraith could feel her even breath and soft little heartbeat against his own chest, the girl was exhausted from the horrors of the last day, she must have been terrified seeing those wraith darts flying towards her village. Slowly day turned to night and while the snow covered planet was always cold, now it got really freezing. Raka knew that if he did not get some heat for the little girl in his arms she would not survive, probably she could also do with some food. Had he been alone Raka would have continued going through the night, but since he had promised to help the fragile little human child he found himself forced to set up camp.

The scientist gently put Moora down on the ground under a large tree which would provide some shelter. The girl sleepily opened her eyes and glanced questioningly at him. The wraith removed his long, black leather coat and wrapped the garment around the human girl.  
«We have to stop for the night Moora, wait here and I will gather some firewood and get you something to eat. Just try to stay warm while I am gone.»  
Raka said as he directed the little one to a log which lay mostly bare of snow under the large evergreen he had chosen as their shelter for the night. Moora looked frightened but she did not protest, perhaps she was to tired to. The wraith did not use long to gather as much dry wood as he could find, after all even wrapped in his coat the girl would be freezing by now. On his way back the scientist saw a small, fur covered animal which sprinted over the snow on some nightly errand, a blast from Raka's stunner killed the animal, the wraith had no idea if the furry thing was good to eat but he had to feed the human child something.

Soon Raka had a fire going and was roasting the furry animal, which Moora called a tikmal, over the open flame. Moora had regained some color in her cheeks as the heat from the fire warmed her. The scientist studied his new friend as he prepared her meal. She was a small, fragile looking thing with pale blond hair only a few shades darker than his own. By human standards the girl would be cute, and she would grow up to be beautiful. The wraith handed Moora the roasted tikmal still on the stick he had used to roast it on.  
«Here child, eat, you will need your strength, we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow before we reach the gate.»  
Moora did not have to be asked twice, she dug into the roasted tikmal and for several minutes the only sounds that came from her where those of chewing ans swallowing. Poor thing she had probably not eaten since this morning before the culling begun, Raka could feel the human child's hunger and like all wraith he found it distasteful, the girl would be far less uncomfortable to be around once she had eaten. Halfway through her meal Moora stopped chewing and looked a bit guilty up at her new protector.  
«I am sorry, here you need to have some to. I did not mean to eat all of it.»  
Moora tried to hand the wraith the stick with the leftover tikmal. Raka held up a hand and shook his head.  
«No, you eat, I have taken what sustenance I need for a long while already today.»  
The human child nodded and took a few more bites of her meal before she looked up at the wraith again.  
«You eat people, don't you? My father says wraith eat people and that is why we have to hide when we hear the pointy ships coming.»  
Raka nodded.  
«Yes I eat people, not in the way you eat but close enough.»  
Moora looked down, tears in her eyes.  
«Did you eat my mommy and daddy?»  
Raka sigh, the moved closer to the little girl and listed her onto his lap.  
«I do not know, I ate several people, but if you say they went into the culling beam...the blue light then it was not me who ate them, however some of my brethren probably did.»  
The wraith found it unnecessary to lie to the child, it was better to tell her the truth, he did however hold back the fact that it was quite possible her parents would be held captive, nestled in cocoons for a long time before one of his kind made a meal of them, the girl did not need all the details.  
«Why do you eat people Raka, you and the other wraith, are you mean and evil?»  
Moora said, fresh tears beginning to slide down her cheeks. Raka wrapped his arms around the little one, it felt strange to do so, wraith generally where not used to this much physical contact, however he had seen humans do this to comfort one another, and especially to comfort children. Another person wrapping their arms around them obviously calmed humans.  
«Are you evil? That tikmal as you call it was alive, it might not be as intelligent as you or me, but it had emotions and ambitions, and yet you are eating it. I have no choice, I was made this way, humans are my food, just as meat and vegetables are your food. There is nothing evil about it, nature is like that sometimes, it creates things which seam cruel. Now I will not make excuses for what I am little one, but I am sorry that your family got hurt.»  
Moora sobs as she rest her head against the wraith's chest.  
«I want my mommy an daddy.»  
Raka rocked the child gently in his arms, another thing he had seen human prisoners do when they tried to comfort one another.  
«I know you do child, I know you do.»  
Slowly the girl's sobs stopped as she fell asleep and Raka wrapped his coat tighter around her, making sure she was as warm as possible as he settled down to keep watch though the long night.

The next morning Raka and the human child found themselves walking again. The wraith had woken the girl up early to get on their way.. With the sun the temperature had risen enough for the girl to walk by herself and the wraith had again donned his coat. After about an hour had passed since Raka had made the little girl eat the reminder of the tikmal meat while he threw snow on the fire to extinguish it and the two had gotten on the way Moora finally spoke again, the girl had been uncharacteristically silent since their conversation last night.  
«Raka, can I ask you a question?»  
Moora asked where she walked behind the wraith on the snow cowered trail. Raka merely nodded.  
«How come your hair is white, only old people have white hair, are you an old man Raka?»  
The scientist half turned and smiled to the girl.  
«That depends, by your standards I am very old, older than your great grandparents, but by the standards of my own people I am fairly young.»  
Moora pondered this for a moment.  
«How old are you?»  
Raka shrugs.  
«I do not know precisely, but I am around five hundred years old.»  
Moora stopped in her tracks for a second, her eyes big as serving plates.  
«That is old!»  
The girl exclaimed before she ran a few steps to catch up with her new protector to slip her tiny, warm hand into his. The young wraith could feel the girl's fingers touching the edges of his feeding organ.  
«Careful little one, that is sharp, if you have to hold my hand, go around me and take the other one so you do not cut yourself on one of the spikes.»  
Raka said and tried to get his hand free from Moora's grip, the girl however had other plans, she obviously found the young wraith scientist's feeding slit extremely interesting.  
«You have a hole in your hand, do it hurt?»  
Moora asked her protector, worry clearly in her melodious voice. Raka gave a short laugh.  
«No, no child it is not a wound, it is what I use to eat with, it do not hurt it is supposed to be there, just like you have eyebrows and I do not, it is just a part of my body which you do not have.»  
Moora had turned Raka's hand over and was staring at the thin slit.  
«Oh, will it eat me if I touch it.»  
The wraith shook his head.  
«No, I would have to break the skin over your heart and willfully draw lifeforce from you to eat you, however there is a claw of sort inside that slit which is rather sharp and a ring of spikes around it, you could cut your hand on them little one. Now let go of me and let us go.»  
The wraith gently pulled his feeding hand free from the little girl's grip and instead took her hand in his left, smooth and and continued to walk down the narrow, cold path.

Late that afternoon the girl and the wraith got to the Stargate. The device stood there in the middle of a large clearing. The snow around the gate was partly melted from the darts engines as the small ships had flown through last night. Raka walked over to the control device and started to dial an address from memory. The planet he was dialing was to a warm, sun filled world with a human settlement not far from the gate, Raka knew about the planet and the settlement on it as this world to was one of his hive's feeding grounds, the planet's name was Omella and her population was friendly and hospitable, or at least that is what Raka's worshipers told him, Moora would be well taken care of there. The gate swooshed and a blue pool of nothingness appeared. Raka knelt beside the little girl and placed his hands on her shoulders.  
«Have you ever gone through the Stargate before little one?»  
Moora nodded and gave a little smile.  
«Once, me and grandma went to a market on Athos.»  
Raka nodded.  
«Good, good, now once you are through the gate you just head towards the left and you will soon come to a village. Now listen to me as this is important. If the people there knew I helped you they might hurt you, tell them your parents where taken in a culling but you found your way to the gate and dialed an address your mother taught you to use in case of emergencies, do you understand? Do not mention me at all or they might think you are a wraith worshiper.»  
Moora nodded and tears welled up in her eyes again.  
«I understand, but I want to stay with you Raka.»  
The wraith shook his head.  
«That is impossible little one, on my ship you would at best be a slave, most likely someone would make a meal out of you. I am not human Moora and you are not a wraith, you can not stay with me, you have to be with your own kind. Go no, the gate is open.»  
Moora started sobbing as she threw her arms around the slender wraith.  
«Thank you Raka, thank you for saving my life. I forgive you for maybe eating someone I know, do you thin the other tikmals forgive me for eating their friend?»  
Raka smiles slightly and ran his hand over the girl's cheeks, carefully brushing her tears away with his sharp claws.  
«I do not think it is about forgiveness child, it is about nature.»  
Considering for a moment the scientist puled one of the shield rings of the long finger it had been sitting on and put the ring in one of the little girl's palms.  
«Here Moora, take this, do not show it to anyone, and do not loose it. If any of my kind come to cull your village again show them this ring, they will be able to read the symbols and designs and see that the ring is mine. Say that you belong to me and the others will most likely leave you alone as they will think you are a worshiper. Now you really must go. Stay safe little one, and remember do not mention me and keep the ring hidden.»  
Moora nodded solemnly, she placed the shield ring in a pouch on her belt and gave the wraith a final hug.  
«I will never forget you Raka.»  
The girl whispered then she turned and ran through the Stargate. The scientist pressed the button which deactivated the gate and begun to dial the rendezvous planet, as the blue pool disappeared behind the little girl Raka shake his head, he tried to convince himself that he had only saved the child for her future offspring, but deep down inside he knew there where more than that, and he also knew that he would never forget Moora either. The gate came to life again and the wraith stepped through to where his hive could find him. Yes him and the little girl lived in different world, but for a night and a day those worlds had met, and like it or not Raka knew that a bond of friendship had been formed which would stay with him for as long as he lived, he would remember the little girl he had saved long after her grandchildren had turned to dust for Moora had done something few ever managed with a wraith, she had touched his heart.


End file.
